Federal law prohibits the admission of aliens to this country who are “likely at any time to become a public charge.” This is one of many statutes that the scofflaw Obama administration brazenly flouts. Rather than ensuring that immigrants will not become liabilities to the public purse, the Obama administration explicitly lures them to the U.S. with promises of lavish welfare benefits–a policy that is both illegal and perverse. This web site promoting federal welfare benefits, now the largest item in the federal budget, mirrors information that is included in packets given to new arrivals in the U.S.:

I can only imagine the disgust with which my immigrant ancestors would react to Obama’s “Government Benefits” brochure. Meanwhile, Senators like Jeff Sessions are trying to get information about the Obama administration’s illegal promotion of welfare benefits, but are being stonewalled–the Obama administration’s invariable response to requests for transparency. Earlier today, Sessions released this statement:

Federal law prohibits the granting of visas to those likely to be welfare reliant, yet DHS actively promotes these benefits to millions of new arrivals every year. DHS knows this, which is perhaps why they refuse to comply with an oversight request on this very issue from the Ranking Members of four Senate Committees.

It is a long-held principle of immigration that those seeking a life in America are expected to be able to care for themselves financially and contribute to the financial health of the nation. The Administration’s actions show this principle is no longer in effect. Encouraging self-sufficiency must be a bedrock for our immigration policy, with the goal of reducing poverty, strengthening the family, and promoting our economic values. But Administration officials and their policies are working actively against this goal. At the same time, those who would be self-sufficient are denied or delayed in their admittance.

This is of course a financial issue as well. America spends enough each year on welfare to equal $60,000 for every household beneath the poverty line. Welfare is now the largest item in the budget and is projected to grow another 30 percent in the next four years. We should not pursue an immigration policy that places even more strain on the funding for domestic programs.

DHS should remove any sections of its website, and any portions of its materials for new arrivals, that promote or encourage welfare reliance. And DHS should respond, at once, to the outstanding oversight request on its failure to enforce legally mandated welfare restrictions. The American people deserve to know the hidden truth about how our immigration system is being run.

For the first time in my lifetime, we have a federal government that feels no compunction about disregarding its own laws. If we had an independent press, the Obama administration’s lawbreaking might well give rise to public indignation.